$Preschool math$

Preschool math lessons?

What biased media reports aren’t telling you

© 2008 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved

Preschool math lessons might have long-term effects.

But do these lessons have to happen in an school setting? Popular media reports imply that they do. But I doubt it.

I’m interested in the development of mathematical thinking and I keep up with the scientific literature on the subject.

So I notice when the media gets it wrong or puts a misleading spin on scientific research.

Like today. I’ve been reading what the popular press has to say about a new study published in Science (Melhuish et al 2008a).

According to these headlines, the study’s main finding is that preschool attendance gives kids a boost in math skills that lasts until they are at least 10 years old. To some writers, the political implications seem clear: We should adopt a policy of universal preschool attendance.

But if you actually read the study, you get a different picture.

The study reports that the most important predictors of math achievement were maternal education and the quality of the preschoolers’ home learning environment.

Attendance of a preschool had a positive effect, too. But the effect applied only to a select group of “highly effective” preschools--i.e., those preschools that produced students who knew more about math upon graduation than would be expected on the basis of their prior attainments, home advantages, and so forth (Melhuish et al 2008b).

Those preschools rated as moderately effective (or even worse) were not associated with better math skills.

More details? Let’s look.

The early years: Preschool influences on mathematics achievement

University of London Professor Edward Melhuish and his colleagues (2008a; 2008b) were interested in the variables that influence long-term math achievement in kids. They tracked British children from age 3 until their 6th year in primary school (when they were about 10 years old).

The researchers looked at all sorts of things that might influence math achievement in primary school, including these social factors:

• Parent’s socioeconomic status

• Total family annual salary

• Ethnicity

• Mother’s level of education

• Father’s level of education

• Home learning environment

• Preschool effectiveness

• Primary school effectiveness

Which variables had the greatest impact?

In order of their importance, the variables linked with the greatest positive effects on math achievement were:

1. Mother with college degree or professional qualifications (0.50)

2. Highest-quality home learning environment (0.40)

3. Indian ethnicity (0.35)

4. Attending an highly effective primary school (.33)

5. Being in the highest income bracket (0.31)

6. Attending a highly effective preschool (0.26)

7. Father with college degree or professional qualifications (0.23)

8. Medium-quality home learning environment (.21)

The numbers in parentheses are a measure of each variable’s effect. As you can see, maternal education was far and away the largest effect. Next was the home learning environment.

These effects weren’t just big. They were also highly statistically significant, meaning, in this case, that the chance of getting these results by accident were less than one-tenth of one percent.

Moreover, the positive effects of maternal education and home learning environment were just as big for low-income as they were for high-income kids.

And the effects were independent, indicating, for instance, that some less educated moms more than made up for the difference by providing their kids with excellent home learning environments.

What is the moral of this story? I don’t know about you, but the most dramatic message I see is about the influence of parents and the home environment.

Even variable #3--Indian ethnicity--may reflect the influence of parenting, if (1) Indian moms in this data set were more likely to have more advanced educations, or (2), Indian parents, like other parents of Asian ethnicity, are more likely to adopt attitudes that promote math achievement (Sammons et al 2007; Stevenson and Lee 1990).

And yet the popular headlines shouted a different moral: “Preschool helps boost math skills.” Not exactly untrue. But it’s rather misleading.

Biased reporting: Must preschool math lessons happen in school?

Why the spin? I think it’s pretty clear. Many of the popular articles I’ve seen link the study with the argument for universal preschool. People want to believe that preschool is the answer to all sorts of problems. And perhaps it can be for many kids--if kids are lucky enough to attend “highly effective” preschools.

But--as noted below--this research doesn’t tell us why some preschools were “highly effective” and others were not. And, in any case, most parents have few choices when it comes to finding the right preschool.

By contrast, parents have a lot of personal control over their preschooler’s home learning environment.

So wouldn’t it be more helpful if these popular accounts reported on the real story?

To me, the most interesting aspect of this study was the researchers’ assessment of the early years home learning environment. That’s information parents can really use.

What is a “highly effective” home learning environment?

To answer this question, Melhuish and colleagues conducted a series of parent interviews and devised a checklist of activities that kids might do with their parents.

Then the researchers analyzed which of these activities predicted better math scores for 10 year olds. As it turns out, the social activities on their checklist had little to do with math achievement.

But the activities associated with literacy and numeracy had significant, positive effects on better-than-expected math achievement. These were:

• Being read to

• Going to the library

• Playing with numbers

• Painting and drawing

• Being taught letters

• Being taught numbers

• Being taught songs/poems/rhymes

Why were these activities effective? Melhuish and colleagues think they were valuable in several respects. Kids learned specific facts and skills. But they probably also benefited in other, more general ways, "learning how to learn" (Melhuish et al 2008b).

Does the media bias matter?

I think it does. The real message of the research is that parenting during the preschool years is an important predictor of math achievement later in life. Preschool attendance seems to help too, but only if preschools are “highly effective.” But what does that mean?

What is a “highly effective” preschool?

As noted above, the researchers defined a preschool as “effective” if its students performed better than could be expected based on the students’ personal characteristics (like prior educational attainment and family background).

But that doesn’t explain why some preschools were more effective than others. What did these schools do differently? The study doesn’t tell us that. And it’s not because the researchers didn’t try to figure it out.

The study that Melhuish and his colleagues have published in Science is part of a larger research program that has been going on for several years. If you check out their other reports, you’ll find that the researchers visited preschools to rate their quality (Sylva et al 2004; Samms et al 2007).

But it turns out that these preschool quality ratings didn’t predict long-term achievement in math.

As a result, researchers can’t say why some preschools were more effective than others.

This doesn’t mean there wasn’t something different—and better—about the preschools associated with better long-term math skills. But if these schools did make the difference, it’s not yet clear why.

Meanwhile, misleading popular headlines may persuade people that preschoolers need to be institutionalized in order to learn. Co-author Edward Malhuish contends that the most effective preschools offer kids learning opportunities that many homes can’t provide.

Maybe. But I don’t think this research can tell us that.

References: Preschool math lessons and media bias

Melhuish EC, Sylva K, Sammons P, Siraj-Blatchford I, Taggart B, Phan MB, and Malin A. 2008a. The early years. Preschool influences on mathematics achievement. Science. 321(5893):1161-2

Melhuish EC, Sylva K, Sammons P, Siraj-Blatchford I, Taggart B, Phan MB, and Malin A. 2008b. Supporting online material for: Preschool influences on mathematics achievement. Science. 321(5893):1161-2. Accessed on August 29, 2008 at www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/321/5893/1161/DC1.

Sammons P, Sylva K, Melhuish E, Siraj-Blatchford I, Taggart B, Grabbe Y and Barreau S. 2007. The Effective Pre-School and Primary Education 3-11 Project (EPPE 3-11): Influences on Children’s Attainment and Progress in Key Stage 2: Cognitive Outcomes in Year 5. London: DfES / Institute of Education, University of London.

Stevenson HW and Lee SY. 1990. Contexts of achievement: a study of American, Chinese, and Japanese children. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev. 55(1-2):1-123.

Sylva K, Melhuish E, Sammons P, Siraj-Blatchford I, Taggart B and Elliot K. 2004. The effective provision of preschool education (EPPE) project: Technical paper 12. final report: Effective pre-school education. London: DfES / Institute of Education, University of London.